


His Lord's Brother

by Krahka



Category: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-27
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2018-01-17 05:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1376152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krahka/pseuds/Krahka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Talos falls in love with his Lord's Jedi brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Lord's Brother

His lord’s brother slept at odd hours just the way his sister did. Talos originally thought that this was where the similarities began. Then Talward told him that it was a vestige of evolution; their still mostly human brain chemistry hadn’t caught up with their lost ability to see daylight. No ghosts whispered in his ears, no regrets kept him tossing and turning at night. Still, when he woke up, he’d make a cup of tea for him just the way he did for Salune. Talward was always grateful.

His lord rarely smiled. Sometimes her lips would turn upward at one of her less painful memories, or at a stray strand of happiness. He’d ask her what it was she was thinking, and she’d never tell. He had learned to leave it alone, but he treasured those moments.  
Her brother, on the other hand, smiled easily. He was always laughing for one reason or another: the thrill of a discovery long remembered, or a play on jargon usually only he understood. He was thrilled that Talos always got his jokes. He said he never met anyone who understood how funny atmospheric radiation could be the way he did. Talos would even laugh at the ones that weren’t that funny, just to see that smile.

He had that same smile when they brought him to Dromund Kaas in a shock collar and stun cuffs, as if that could really restrain a Jedi Master as powerful as him. As they paraded him about Kaas City in chains, he kept that beatific smile as they spat jeers and hatred at him. He didn’t show any fear when he stood before the Dark Council. 

Most men would fall down weeping before Darth Nox. Most would rather die than receive her personal attention. Talward was not most men, and he greeted her as if nothing had happened between the time she became a slave and the time she became a Sith Lord.

“There’s still good in you, Salune,” he said. “I can see it under your scars, clear as Ashla.”

For that she shocked him until he cried out in pain. She cursed him for abandoning her and for his heretical ways and his pathetic attempts to defeat the Empire. She declared before the whole Council that she would break this foolish Jedi for even considering that she needed to be “saved.” She ordered him away to the estate she inherited after killing Darth Thanaton.

And hadn’t shown up to say a word to him since. Something in her, Talos gussed nostolgia or some frayed strand of familial bond kept her from her promise to break him.

She put him under Talos’s care, instead of dealing with him herself. Talward had requested to meet him personally.

“Talos Drellik! I can’t believe I’m meeting you! I’ve read all your papers! At least, I’ve read as many of them as I could before the SIS threatened to blacklist me.”

“I haven’t had much chance to read anything of yours. Imperial Intelligence is much more thorough about their blacklists,” Talos replied.

Talward laughed at this, as if it was hilarious. The way he laughed, Talos almost found it funny too.

Talos tried to find more similarities as the days went on, but he found very few. For every mannerism they shared, the way he held his hands and the way he wouldn’t face , he would find a new kind of smile. The morning after his first night, Talward made a cup of tea for Talos.

“It’s the Jedi way to serve,” he said, this time with the smile that had to hold something he truly believed.

Talos scoffed. “I thought the Jedi way was to kill all Sith. Something about them being evil?”

“The Jedi way is to understand. That’s what I’m trying to do here. I want to understand why she hates like she does. And I want to understand why you don’t.”

Talos had no idea what his lord wanted him to do if her brother turned violent. Talos didn’t have much experience fighting Jedi, not without a Sith and her lightsaber backing him up. The first nights he couldn’t sleep, because he knew that if he wanted to bring the roof down around his head, Talos couldn’t stop him. But the more they talked, the more he got to know him, the less Talos could imagine her brother ever intentionally trying anything. Talos was no longer afraid that he’d hurt him, but that he wouldn’t stop him if he tried to hurt her.

His lord’s brother was a war criminal, a murderer, a heretic, a Republic sympathizer and everything that Talos had been taught to hate and fear. But his lord’s brother was a brilliant man, a charming conversationalist and made a damn good cup of tea. No matter how Talos tried, he couldn’t bring himself not to love him.


End file.
